This is a permanent record of a MPC Blog posting

March, 2008

Australian petanque players banned from wearing high heels during tournaments

It was fun reading the Australian tournament rules for the "Petanque Australia 2008 Easter International Open Tournament". My country mates are banning high heels from tournaments!. I think this is because my fellow Australians are very sophisticated and their female players and cross-dressers started turning up in high heels at tournaments (see image). Presumably wearing high heels brings the possible danger of players getting their eyes poked out, and so, a restriction on high heels came into force (another playing hazard identified and dealt with).

Luckily Kiwis are more down to earth. They do not play in important tournaments on pogo sticks, roller blades, or wearing high heels - we like comfortable simple shoes, moccasins, sandals, jandals (also known as thongs) or gumboots (Kiwis are so unpretentious and practical).

Anyway, here is the line from the rules: "Fully enclosed footwear must be worn whilst playing. No high heel shoes permitted". Yes this is really true - it has been (until 17/03/08) on the PNZ front page where Brian Smith gave special attention to it with: "If you have entered this tournament please make yourself familiar with the local rules, particularly the one on footwear".

Life is full of fun, I love it. -Tom.

PS You can find an interesting article on player safety and dress code, written by the Société Internationale des Pratiquants de Petanquisme et Jeux Alliés (SIPPJA) on this PAGE. (it's in English)

PPS Is petanque in Australia now moving in this dirction:

08. Men must wear suits except on practice days when blazers and ties will suffice

09. Ladies must wear hats and gloves. Handbags need not be carried on practice days. (taken from this PAGE)

5 Comments:

At 4:21 PM, Anonymous said...

what a shame! There is nothing more sexy than an ozzie bloke in suspenders and stilletos!

Not that it turns me on of course. I prefer my ozzie men in a bikini but thats my personal choice.

Where is their sense of adventure?

Graeme Burnard

At 9:33 AM, Anonymous said...

"Presumably wearing high heels brings the possible danger of players getting their eyes poked out" How does that work??

At 10:50 AM, NZPC Editor (Tom) said...

Hi no Name,

Please visualise this very real possibility: A player in high heels steps accidentally on a boule and falls backwards onto the piste. When this player hits the ground his/her legs fly upwards. At this very point in time another player moves down to do some measuring, and BINGO, heel penetrates eye socket and gouges eye out.

Instead of making protective eye glasses mandatory during tournaments, they decided to simply ban high heels - good logic in my view. -Tom.

At 4:50 PM, Anonymous said...

But you could draw such a lovely circle with a stilleto and it would be so easy to mark the coch and boule!

Graeme "I'm a tart" Burnard

At 11:22 AM, NZPC Editor (Tom) said...

I have received a number of emails from Australia and this one shows the overwhelming sentiment:

"....I want to say well done on your site. I've enjoyed it for a few years now, even the latest wooly-headed humour about our stilletto pocked pistes.

Keep up the good work".

As this text is from a private email I have decided to remove the identity of the sender.

Its nice to know our friends across the Tasman can see the fun, and are not offended by our satire. Satire can be a powerful tool in pointing out the ridiculous. -Tom.